Nov 9 2011

Yenling Bonsai Blog

I’m all for sharing the love 🙂

Therefore, I thought I would share a link to Yenlings new blog. I found a link for it today and was impressed with the standard of yamadori he’s collected and his attitude towards bonsai. The quality of the photos on the site is superb.

The tree photos are inspirational. I dream of visiting the West Coast of the United States and getting to see some of this for myself.

I wish you all the best with your blog Yenling.

To visit, click the image below or find it in my Favourites on the sidebar.

Nov 8 2011

Bonsai Accents

It’s great to see Bonsai Accents getting a little of the limelight for a change.

Click Image below for further details.

Nov 8 2011

Last time, I promise

I’m sure everyone’s sick and tired of seeing this one but the colour has changed again.

Nov 7 2011

Clean Up and Tuck Away

I started the process of cleaning up a few of the bits of raw material to tuck away into the poly tunnel for Winter Protection.

This little Hornbeam was field grown and has only been the victim of my chop and grow procedures.

Dead leaves removed. I don’t want any hiding places for little beasties over the Winter.

The original chop will need some carving work to look more convincing.

This Wild Pear was also put away. I will be leaving the branches to extend further next year to thicken before cutting back next Autumn.

Nov 7 2011

Shohin- Europe Bonsai

Morten Albek has revamped his website and it’s well worth a look if you are into Shohin Bonsai. After recently joining the BSA I am trying to bring myself up to speed with the differences between shohin and other sized bonsai. It’s a deep and boundless topic!! Morten’s site has many great articles and I have spotted a few things that are new to me. To visit the site just click below. Morten’s blog has been added to my favourites on the sidebar.

Nov 7 2011

Dig It!

I bought this folding spade the other day under the pretence that I’ll keep it in the car in case of Winter snow.

My real reason was to add it to my collecting kit bag 🙂

Not bad for £6 🙂

Nov 6 2011

First Frost & Sunday Walk

I woke up this morning to the first frost I’ve seen in a long time, I may have slept through one earlier in the week 🙂

It was a beautiful clear morning with blue skies, not a breath of wind and a perfect day for my Sunday walk. Here are the usual photos taken whilst walking from Hollywood to Bangor along the shore of Belfast Lough.

Hard to tell where the sea finishes and the sky begins.

Some Trees to inspire

Some Wildlife

Everyone looking towards Belfast hoping to spot a star or two. The MTV European Music Awards is on in Belfast tonight and the City is buzzing!

“I see Bieber!” “Who’s the Blonde he’s with?” 🙂This guy was walking a horse on the Beach! Well, it was the size of a horse. My dogs gave it a wide berth. Pink lead made me laugh.

Maggie and Smudge at full tilt as usual! Notice some frost on the ground.

Crawforsburn

Just makes you want to sit down for a while.

end game, Bangor Marina.

Nov 6 2011

Trees from Friday Night

Here are a few of the trees worked on on Friday night. Some were styled some were discussed.

Phils Scots Pine before old needle removal.

and after…

Hugh’s Scots Pine after needle removal, shown from a few angles.

One of Ian B’s Mugo Pines grown from seed.

and after styling

and another one before.

and after

Michael’s Juniper

A little Yew I worked on.

and after, still work to do but ran out of time 😦

Nov 5 2011

Before and after

Glad to get this done.

Corner of Garden Before

and After

Nov 5 2011

Does Anybody Irish still do bonsai??

I’m posing this question to try and scare up some bonsai interest in the Republic of Ireland.

We have members a plenty in our club north of the border but, to the best of my knowledge there isn’t a bonsai club, study group or similar in the ROI.

Of the 2 guys who have made contact with me from Ireland, one was Polish and the other Romanian! So, are you reading this from Ireland? Are you interested in getting together with other bonsai enthusiasts in your area? If you are, drop me a few lines and I will endeavour to get you in touch with like minded people.

Last night I had a few mates around to play with trees. Ovidiu, who lives in Dublin, came up to visit me for the first time. [First of many I hope] I met Ovidiu through the Wee Trees Bonsai Forum. He’s keen to work with others to progress his love of bonsai. This is the main reason for this, ‘Calling all Irish!’ post.

After meeting the chaps last night he was keen to get stuck in. As he stayed over night, we got stuck into a Cypress today that he had brought with him. He had done a little bit of wiring previously and wanted help with making a few decisions. Usually I’m not a big lover of this species for bonsai, but this one seemed to be suited to the techniques that we carried out.

Before

We cleared away the surface soil to find about 3 inches of trunk line previously unseen. We wired the main branches and added a little deadwood.